Blast from the Past
by Arcole
Summary: I want new episodes so I'm writing them. This takes place right after All About Eve. Danziger deals with the issues that come from having left both Ellie and Devon in cold sleep. The Terrians try to get to know the new leader in their own way. My ep 2.1
1. Chapter 1

Blast from the Past

_Disclaimer: I don't own Earth 2. Do you?_

_AN: I'm still plenty po'd that the series went off the air after only one season. So, I've decided to just continue it myself. If you are actually reading this, let me know. I figure I might be the only survivor in Earth 2 fandom. . . _

Chapter 1

The nightmare was always the same.

Each night he fell asleep on planet G889, but his consciousness would return to the stations. He and Ellie were on spacewalk, repairing a minor hull breach.

"Johnny, are you sure they know we're out here?" Ellie had asked.

"Yes," he replied again, "they know we're out here. I filed the work order yesterday and put it on the station schedule with Roby."

"Then we ought to have a drone with us," she answered worriedly. "You know how mixed up they get around here. I just wonder if we ought to check in."

"I'll be happy to call in once we've got this fixed. You know how much I hate spacewalks. I'm not gonna get forced back in on a technicality just to have to come right back out here tomorrow. These shankin' suits get smaller and smaller every day," he said grimly as he carefully pulled a piece of space debris from the side of the station.

Several minutes later, the two were wrapping up the final touches on their repair when a call came in on their suit gear. "Identify yourselves."

"Eleanor Moore and John Danziger, station repair team 783. Conducting hull repair on section F89B," Ellie replied.

"You are out of the station without authorization. Return immediately."

"Our work order was filed yesterday for this repair," Ellie replied.

"I have no work order. Return immediately," the voice came back through their head sets. It was male and sounded pissed.

"Give us five minutes and we'll have this repair completed," John interjected.

"Your presence is unauthorized. Return immediately," the voice insisted.

"Come on, John. We'll come back later when they've got this sorted out," Ellie suggested over private channel.

John continued to fuse the last bit of plating into place. "By the time they get done deciding that we were in the clear, they will have sent some other team to finish the job and they'll get the pay when they sign off on it. Do you really want to throw away spacewalk hazard pay for this guy?"

The voice repeated over the main channel, "Return immediately. You do not have proper authorization or drone support. If you do not return, we will begin termination of your umbilical support functions."

"Listen, buddy," Danziger replied angrily, "if you don't let us finish this repair, the hull is still compromised. Just give me two more minutes and we'll be done."

There was no reply on gear, so John continued to fuse the final piece into place. After a minute or so, he sealed the last bit and turned to Ellie.

"Johnny," Ellie's voice sounded a little funny. "I don't feel good." About that time, her oxygen monitor began to sound in the background.

He looked into her suit faceplate to see her eyes roll back in her head and flutter shut. "Ellie!" he cried. "They've shut off her air," he realized.

Grabbing her by the collar hand hold, he began to pull them toward the airlock, all the time trying to raise the station. "Hey! You son of a bitch, you've cut off her air! Turn it back on! We're coming in!"

The airlock seemed so far away as he desperately pulled them toward it. At last, he had them in the airlock and cycling through. How many minutes had it been? he wondered. The light finally went green and he began to wrestle with her helmet.

"Help me!" he called into his gear, but there was no answer. He managed to remove her helmet to see her lips a frightening shade of blue. He wrestled his own helmet off, then began to struggle with the icy cold suit, desperately trying to get to her.

The requisite emergency oxygen tank was not on the wall where it should be, so he began rescue breathing for her. He felt for a pulse and was relieved to feel a slight beat beneath his fingertips. But she still wasn't breathing on her own.

He had bent down to force more air into her lungs, when he was suddenly dragged off her by strong hands. "Hey!" he yelled in surprise. "She's not breathing. Give her some air."

Instead the two men in station security uniforms kept their focus on him. "Just what were you doing outside the station on an unauthorized spacewalk?"

"Guys, please, get her some help! Her air was cut off. She's not breathing on her own," Danziger continued desperately.

"I repeat, what were you doing on an unauthorized---"

Danziger pulled away from the guards to get back to Ellie. He felt for her breath on his cheek, but she still wasn't breathing. He managed to get one more breath into her before the men jerked him back, slamming him into the wall.

She was going to die, he realized. She was going to die because these station bureaucrats were more concerned about procedure than life. Ellie was just a drone to them. And so was he.

Furious, he fought them again, punching one solidly in the gut and shoving the other against the far wall. He fell next to Ellie again, his cheek turned to her face. Nothing. This time he managed to get two more breaths in her before the men were back on him, this time using stun weapons to drop him to the floor. He lay there, twitching uncontrollably from the charge, struggling to remain conscious.

"Please, help her," he tried to say. The guy he'd punched kicked him in the stomach, but the other man knelt next to Ellie.

"She's breathing," the soldier stated.

Within a few moments, a medical team had come to take Ellie to the infirmary. When John attempted to follow, the two soldiers held him back. "You're coming in for questioning, worker," came the response.

Of course, he fought them and was stunned again for his troubles. This time he was unconscious when they dragged him away.

The dream always shifted eleven years later to the day he left her. True was on board the Roanoke, ready for departure, blissfully unaware of the turmoil in her father's mind.

John never went to the neuro unit. He just couldn't stand to see her like that, so still and helpless. That wasn't his Ellie. But maybe, maybe after 44 years of cold sleep, there was a chance that STIM research would be returning better results than the empty shells he'd met previously—their successes. Maybe after their return, STIM would be good enough to really bring her back to them.

So, he'd arranged for Ellie to go into cold sleep as well. It was very risky in her condition and very expensive. But he knew the terms of his contract with Adair. He knew payment would be granted on departure and had already arranged for his debt to be paid off and Ellie's cold sleep contract to be paid in full for fifty years. When they came back, there should be enough left, gaining interest in his account, to pay for STIM and a new start for all of them. True wouldn't get her cat, but maybe she'd settle for her mom.

The dream always brought him to that place where he'd watched them place Ellie in the cold sleep capsule. Then things always began to get mixed up. Ellie and her doctor would be replaced in his vision with Devon and Julia.

"There's no guarantee that she'll wake up from this," Ellie's doctor/Julia would both say. "This is a very risky thing to do under the circumstances."

He would nod in the dream, knowing the risk was worth it for both of them. Then the sleep capsule would close on Ellie but flickered back to Devon in the Council ship. He reached out to touch the outside of Ellie's/Devon's capsule and the nightmare would begin in earnest.

Ellie's eyes would flash open. "John!" He jumped back in surprise. "John! Don't leave me in here! Don't leave me behind! Let me out! Please, John!"

He would awaken with a start, trying hard to still his breathing so as not to disturb True, the sound of Ellie's pleading cries echoing in his ears.

Morgan VO: _It has been ten days since we placed Devon in cold sleep on Franklin Bennett's ship. Each morning, I see Julia wandering around between the ship and the med tent. She doesn't look as though she's slept at all in the entire ten day period. Meanwhile, even though Danziger makes noises about heading on to New Pacifica, it seems that each day there is a reason to delay. _

_Yesterday, Alonzo needed to talk to the Terrians in the area one more time to see if there was any chance of help from their quarter. The day before Walman and Baines wanted to go over the dunerail's drive system one more time. The day before that, Yale needed to spend a few more hours downloading all the information available on the Council ship's computer system. _

_No one wants to leave, but we all know we have to. I wonder what will happen today to put us off schedule again. _

Danziger sat down with True for a bite of breakfast, rubbing his eyes wearily as he took a drink of water. True gave him a worried look.

"What is it, Truegirl?" he asked, knowing he sounded tired.

"Did you sleep okay last night?" she asked, giving him a sidelong glance of concern.

"Sure I did," he lied. "Why do you ask?"

"You didn't sound like you slept good," she answered seriously. "You mumbled a lot."

"Really?" he tried to sound surprised. "What did I say?"

"All I could make out was something about not leaving, something like 'I won't leave you.' Who won't you leave, Dad? Devon?" she asked.

John looked down at his daughter, once again feeling as though he'd failed her. He was supposed to protect her from harm, but had managed to drag her 22 light years from home to a dangerous planet full of convicts, strange creatures, death, and now his own personal demons. He put his arm around her to give her a hug and a kiss on the top of her head.

"I don't remember any dreams," he lied again, determined to at least protect her from worrying about his state of mind. "I might have been dreaming about taking you with me to come here. You know I'd never leave you."

"We're going to leave Devon," she said sadly. It tore at him to see True in such misery. And at that moment he didn't want to see Uly at all. The lost look on the little boy's face was a constant source of pain to everyone around him.

Julia stumbled by them, mumbling under her breath. This had to stop.

"Julia," Danziger called out, giving True another squeeze, then rising to intercept the doctor.

She turned, and he was uncomfortably reminded of the time she'd been taking Uly's DNA. She looked just about the same degree of crazy to him.

"When did you last get any sleep?" he asked.

"I've been sleeping," she answered defensively.

Alonzo walked up behind her, shaking his head and giving Danziger a solemn look.

"I don't believe you," Danziger answered firmly. "You go back to your tent right now. Knock yourself out if necessary, but get some sleep. There's no way you can cure Devon if you're out of your mind from exhaustion."

"But we're going to leave today," she began pitifully. "I've still got tests to run."

A sudden boom from behind the transrover cut into their discusssion. "Not again," Danziger groaned. "It sounds like the power generator's gone belly up again. That means at least one more day here to fix it," he continued. "So go to bed. Alonzo, see that she does as she's told."

Danziger glowered down at her as imposingly as he could manage. The observant doctor in her took in the red rims of his eyes and the weariness in his own face. "You need to do the same, John," she recommended.

"I'll sleep in New Pacifica," he replied gruffly as he watched Alonzo steer her away to their tent.

Across the compound, he could see Baines and Walman already kneeling next to the ailing power generator.

"What's the trouble, boys?" he asked, knowing already.

"The catalyst cell is shot," Walman replied. "This time, I don't think even you can fix it."

That damned catalyst cell had been giving them fits for the past week. He knelt down to begin to tinker with it. Sure enough, there was no jury rigging it any longer. It was shot. Without the catalyst to drive the reaction, there would be no power for recharging. Solar alone wouldn't hold up to the pace they were driving.

He sighed and tossed the piece of equipment to the ground next to him. Right that moment all he wanted to do was give in to it all. Despair over the equipment that he couldn't keep running, despair over finding a cure to bring Devon back to lead this group again, despair over ever getting his daughter back home where she'd be safe and happy.

But despair wasn't John Danziger's way. Somehow, he had to find a fix for this. Sitting there, he pondered the workings of the catalyst and its job, seeking a way around the problem. The catalyst provided the jumpstart of energy for the fusion reactor to do its job. He just needed another jumpstarter. Something that held plenty of energy but released it safely.

"Sunstones."

Baines looked over at Danziger with a questioning look. "Sunstones?"

"Yeah, sunstones. Morganite. Go get Martin for me, will ya?" Danziger had a distant look on his face as if he were trying to see through a problem.

A few moments later, a nervous Morgan Martin stood before Danziger, who hadn't moved from his seat on the ground next to the generator.

"Martin," he began, "what happened to all the sunstones you and Bess and Julia had when you cracked the geolock?"

Morgan swallowed nervously and replied, "We put them back in the cave with all the rest of them."

"All of them?" Danziger gave him a very searching look.

That man could look positively intimidating when he wanted to, Morgan thought. He decided to come clean. "Well, Bess still had one in her bag when the Terrians captured us. They didn't take it away, so we figured it might be okay to keep it," he ventured timidly. "As a souvenir," he explained, not too convincingly.

"Good job," Danziger replied, giving Morgan a friendly clap on the shoulder. "Go get it."

Baines looked at Danziger as if he'd lost his mind. "What are you planning to do, Danz?" he asked.

"I think I can retrofit a sunstone to function as a catalyst cell," Danziger explained, his mind still clearly turning the idea over.

"If you don't have the power balanced just right, the whole generator will blow and take out the entire camp," Walman interjected nervously.

"Yeah," Danziger answered. "I'm going to need Yale and Morgan for this one."

A few hours later, Danziger knelt next to the generator, slipping the sunstone into place. Maybe this housing would work, he thought. Gingerly, he moved the stone into the housing, and it settled into place with a click. Perfect, he thought.

After a few minor adjustments in positioning, he began to debate the power settings. Too high and it would explode. Too low and it would just melt the housing away. Just right and the housing would stay intact as the sunstone's energy was diverted into jumpstarting the reaction.

He took another deep breath and gave it his best shot. All seemed well as the reaction began.

Suddenly, a loud whine rose from the generator and before he could shut it down, with a loud boom, the world went white around him.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Danziger snatched the VR gear off his head with a curse. It had shocked him! "Martin, what did you do to this thing?" he snarled.

"I just programmed in a little negative reinforcement. To make it more realistic. The boom was supposed to be loud enough to feel lifelike," Morgan explained nervously. He didn't like the rough way Danziger was treating his precious gear.

"Yeah, but there was no reason to make it shock me," Danziger replied, trying to be patient.

"I didn't make it shock you," Morgan seemed genuinely surprised. "All I did was load Yale's specs on the generator and the information we had on the sunstones to the VR program. I added a few realistic touches like the camp and the boom in case of overload, but no shocks I promise!"

"I hate shankin' VR," Danziger growled again, this time to himself. He took a deep breath to steady himself, then slipped the gear back on and began working again.

Members of the group filed by idly over the next several minutes, each transfixed by the sight of John Danziger in VR gear.

Morgan looked up as Bess stopped to kneel behind him. They watched as John carefully placed an invisible sunstone into an invisible bracket and into the invisible generator.

"Any minute now," Baines murmured as they watched him fiddle with invisible settings.

A little smile crossed John's face and the group sighed in relief. Then suddenly he was thrown back by yet another of the phantom explosions. Morgan watched carefully for any signs that the gear was shocking him and was surprised to see a tiny spark pass over the gearset into his temple.

"Damn, damn, damn!" John cursed aloud, jerking the set off again. "Morgan, fix this thing so it won't keep shocking me. The damned explosion is bad enough."

Morgan fiddled with the gearset a moment, then passed it back. "I think that ought to do it," he said quietly, hoping to slide in under Danziger's annoyance radar.

"Bess, do me a favor and keep the kids away from here," Danziger said wryly as he slipped the gear over his mop of blond curls again. "I don't want them to hear my language if this doesn't work this time."

He re-entered the VR simulation and began the process of fitting the sunstone into place again. At last, he finished making the connections and adjusted the power settings. Then he sat back to watch and wait.

After several minutes, he knew he'd done it. Success at last. The generator hummed without a hitch, the sunstone glowed merrily as if happy with its new home, and power flowed through the connections to the camp.

He was just about to remove the gear when he heard something, a low humming sound. "What are you up to, Martin?" he asked aloud. He glanced down in the simulation next to the generator to see yet another sunstone lying in the dirt. It was humming at him. There was something about it though. He wanted to touch it.

In real life, these things were hot enough to burn flesh—Martin still had faint scars from his run in with the stuff. But in VR, it couldn't hurt him. So, he bent down and picked it up. The world went white around him.

Outside the simulation, Baines and Morgan were taking bets as to whether John had done it when they looked over to see him crouched next to the real sunstone on the ground. Both men shouted a warning when they saw him reach out, but neither were heard by the mechanic as he picked up the stone, then fell backward in a dead faint.

Morgan attempted to pry the stone loose from John's grip, but it was scorching hot to the touch and John's hold was too strong to break. Baines reached to remove the gear from his head, but received an electric shock for his trouble.

"Get Alonzo," Morgan yelled to Walman, who was standing nearby.

Within a moment, Alonzo and Julia knelt next to them on either side of the unconscious Danziger. Julia passed her ever present diaglove over Danziger's head and chest.

"It's like he's sleeping. I'd say he's in REM sleep right now," she murmured. She reached to remove the gear, but quickly pulled back her fingers from the discharge of static electricity that sizzled through the air.

Behind them, a lone Terrian rose from the ground and extended a staff with a triangular headpiece over John's prone form. Alonzo turned to face him.

Baines reached forward again to make another attempt at removing the VR gear. "Stop, stop!" Alonzo held his hand over John to prevent anyone else from meddling with the gear or sunstone. "We need to leave him alone. He's on the Dreamplane. The Terrians want to talk to him."

Everyone sat back in disbelief, Julia and Alonzo exchanging looks. John Danziger on the Dreamplane. Would wonders never cease?

John stood there in a sea of white, quietly panicking. He was going to kill Martin for this. "End simulation," he called to the gear, trying to reach up to remove it or deactivate it. He felt nothing.

Everything whirled about him and he felt dizzy. Suddenly, a Terrian appeared before him. His staff bore a triangular headpiece and he had scarlet beads around his right wrist. "Oh God," he groaned, more than a little bit frightened. He'd heard enough stories from Alonzo to know where he was and he didn't like it at all.

"Hey, guy," he stammered, backing away from the Terrian. He'd faced down plenty of them on solid ground, but this was their territory. "You need to go get Alonzo. He'll be glad to talk to you."

"Now why would I want to talk to Alonzo, Johnny?" came a sweet voice from behind him. "I've come a long way to talk to you."

He turned to see the most beautiful sight he'd seen since he'd held True for the first time. There she stood, so lovely, so alive. His Ellie.

"Ellie," he breathed. "Is it really you?"

"It's me, Johnny," she answered with a smile.

He ran to her and embraced her, tears running freely down his face. He buried his face in her hair and breathed in the smell of her. "You feel so good," he said with a sob.

"So do you, Johnny," she answered softly. "How's True?"

"She's beautiful, just like you," he replied, still clinging to her desperately.

"I'm glad," came her gentle reply.

John pulled back to look at her again. He took in her sparkling brown eyes, her copper hair, the way her mouth turned up at the corners when she looked at him. Then he pulled her into his chest again, exulting in the way she fit against him, so perfectly. He ran his fingers into her hair and sighed. "I've missed you so much," he managed.

"I've been looking out for you, John. I'm never far away," she answered.

"God bless Morgan Martin and his VR gear," John sighed. "I'm never leaving."

Outside in the camp, it was beginning to grow dark. Most everyone had drifted away, leaving Julia, Alonzo, and Morgan along with the Terrian sentry to monitor John. Bess walked up to the group, a blanket in her hand.

"It's getting chilly out," Bess explained to the Terrian. "I'm just going to put this over him so he doesn't get cold." She looked at Alonzo for permission. He glanced at the Terrian, then nodded to Bess. She draped the blanket over Danziger's still form, then sat down on a box next to Morgan.

"He looks so peaceful," she sighed. "I wonder what he's dreaming about."

Behind them, True moved closer into the circle, Yale right behind her. "How is he doing?" she asked.

"Still no change, True," Julia answered.

"Our friends say they wish to speak with him. I don't know what about," said Alonzo.

"It's been over an hour," Morgan interjected. "Maybe you should slip in there and take a look around. You know, be sure he's okay."

Alonzo bent his head, but soon looked up again. "I can't follow him. Maybe it's the sunstone interfering, but I can't get in." Behind him the Terrian gave a low trill. "He says this is between John and the Mother. Not for us."

"I guess we wait then," came Yale's deep, comforting voice.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

"Let's take a walk," Ellie suggested, pulling out of John's embrace and taking his hand in hers. The swirling white around them coalesced into the corridors of the Station they'd called home so many years before.

"Man, it has been forever since I was here last," he exclaimed. He looked down the seemingly endless miles of corridor, aware for the first time that he felt claustrophobic. They stopped at a window on the stars and looked out to see a pair of spacewalkers conducting maintenance on the hull.

"That could be us, couldn't it, Johnny?" Ellie laughed, pointing at the pair.

John watched the pair sealing a bit of the hull, an icy chill descending down his spine as he realized what he was seeing. When one of the couple began to pull the other along the side of the station, he knew. "It is us, Ellie," he whispered as he pulled her close, unable to take his eyes off the vision. "I can't lose you again."

Suddenly the world swirled around him and they stood outside the door of the neuro unit, watching as the technicians placed Ellie into cold sleep. He could see himself touching the door of the chamber, tears pouring down his face.

"Why are we here? Why are we watching this?" he asked angrily.

Suddenly Ellie pulled back from his embrace and pointed. "This is why, Johnny," she said.

Now they stood in the Council ship. He could see himself standing before Devon's cold sleep chamber, his hand touching the door just as he'd done Ellie's. Suddenly, the room was filled with Terrians, making the strange low sounds they made.

"I don't understand," John stammered, nervous in their presence.

"Neither do they," Ellie answered gently. "They say that they can feel your pain on the Dreamplane. They don't know why. But you are this group's leader now and they are trying to understand you better."

"How do you know all this?" John asked roughly. "Who are you?" He pulled away from her.

"I'm your Ellie. I'm all that and more," she answered as the world began to go white around him. "Take care of yourself and our True, Johnny." Then she gave him one last kiss and it all faded away.

He came to awareness that he was lying on the hard ground, a sunstone in his hand, not burning him, just warming him through.

"He's coming around," he heard Julia's voice say.

"Hey, the Terrian's gone," Morgan called out as gentle hands removed the VR gear from his temples.

He tried to call for Ellie, but his voice didn't make much sound.

He opened his eyes, and after a few seconds they focused at last. He glanced around at the friends surrounding him, his eyes lighting on True.

"Are you okay, Daddy?" she asked softly as she came to kneel beside him.

He reached up to touch her long hair, looking into those brown eyes so like her mother's. "I don't know," he whispered. "I don't know."

They'd managed to get John into his bunk. He seemed to be in shock and didn't fuss at all when Julia gave him a sedaderm to get him to sleep.

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" asked Alonzo.

"You made me sleep this morning, now it's his turn. I'm rested enough to know exhaustion when I see it," she answered.

The next morning, John did indeed look better rested than Alonzo had seen him in days. He was surprised though to see him loading a knapsack into the ATV.

"Where are you going?" Alonzo asked.

"To see the Elder," Danziger answered matter of factly. "Keep an eye on the camp while I'm gone. I'll be back in a couple of days. Tell Devon I have my gear with me and I'll keep it on as long as I'm in range."

At the mention of Devon's name, Alonzo made up his mind. He wasn't sure how hard it would be, but he was going to have to knock his friend out cold.

Then John sighed deeply. "I can't believe I said that. I went on way too many scouting missions with that instruction ringing in my ears." He turned back to Alonzo. "I'm okay. Really. I just need to see the Elder about what happened to me."

"Then I'm going with you," Alonzo quickly decided. "Yale will watch the camp for us." He expected a fight, but to his surprise, Danziger simply nodded his head.

"We'll still take the ATV in case they need the rail," he said when Alonzo returned with his knapsack and Julia in tow.

"John, are you sure about this?" Julia asked in concern, running her diaglove over his neck.

Gently, but firmly, John took her hand and pushed it away. "I am fine. Quit fussing over me. I've already asked Bess to keep an eye on True. I just have to talk to the Elder. We'll be back in a couple of days, all right?"

Julia nodded and backed down. She was very glad Alonzo was going. More so when she heard John say, "Lonz, you drive." John never let anyone else drive, much less on the ATV. He climbed up, barely folding his long legs behind the seat as Alonzo crawled in front behind the wheel.

Alonzo gave Julia a long look. "I'll take care of him," he said solemnly. She nodded and the two men rode off.

The trip back through the pass was much faster with the two of them unhindered by the slow movement of the rover and those on foot. However, Alonzo noted it was much quieter as well. Apart from some brief discussions of the route and past landmarks, John only answered his queries with one syllable answers. Whenever Alonzo pressed him about the events of the day before, all John could say was "I don't know what happened."

But his spirits seemed unusually positive for a man who'd had his first disturbing psychic experience.

Julia had asked him the night before what he believed had happened. All he could think of to tell her was that the Terrian had said that Danziger was dreaming with them. Apparently, they'd been trying to get through to him on the Dreamplane, but were confused by what they saw there. The sunstone came along at just the right time to augment the VR for an alternate way into Danziger's mind.

"Danz never struck me as the dreaming type," Alonzo had admitted. "It only seems right that even the Terrians would have to use a technical gadget to get into that head."

They camped overnight under a bluff. The stars were bright overhead.

"We saw the stars on the Station sometimes," Danziger suddenly stated out of nowhere. "Most places it was too bright either from earthshine or the docking lights. But out of the few windows in our sector, there were a couple where we could see the stars."

"Not like here though," Alonzo replied.

"No, not like here."

The men fell silent again.

Then Danziger spoke up again. "She's on the Station, 'Lonz. She's there on the Station waiting for me and True to come home," he said seriously.

"Who is?" Alonzo asked quietly, not at all easy with the unusual direction of the conversation.

"I talked to Ellie. She's there on the Station and she's herself," Danziger replied evenly. He looked up at the stars again. "I didn't get the chance to tell her to get back into cold sleep. She has to wait for us."

Alonzo sat silently by the fire. It wasn't for him to say what John did or didn't see on the Dreamplane. After all he'd had a visit from an ex-girlfriend named Lydia and it seemed as real as if she were sitting next to him by the fire.

Plus, they'd theorized that Morgan's vision of Bennett had been planted by Riley, but there was no guarantee that it wasn't Bennett himself somehow projecting into the Dreamplane like Del Curry had done.

"I don't have any idea who or what you've seen, John," Alonzo began. "But I'm more than happy to see the Elder with you."

"The Elder can show me how to dream myself home," John replied distantly. "I can dream myself back to Ellie and tell her to wait for us."

He sat there quiet in his thoughts for a few more minutes, then he turned back to Alonzo, firelight shining in his eyes. "I never thought I'd be grateful to the Terrians for anything. They've always creeped me out. But right now I'm grateful. They gave Ellie back to me."

Something about the tone of his voice filled Alonzo with misgiving. He just wasn't sure how it would all pan out in the end.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

They stopped on the coordinates they'd always used to meet with the Elder and waited well over an hour before the little boy stepped out to meet them.

"Mr. Danziger, you came back!" he cried in innocent joy.

Danziger knelt to give the little boy a heartfelt hug. "How've you been, kid?" he asked genially. "I think you've grown!"

The boy chattered excitedly as he took Danziger by the hand and led him down into the caverns below. Alonzo followed, glad to see his friend acting relatively normal.

The caverns were all but empty, however, as they traveled deeper into the mountain. "Where is everybody?" Alonzo asked.

"Now that spring is coming, we're all moving out to the camp above ground," the boy answered. "There are still a few who will stay under, but there's plenty of work to do outside now."

"I need to see the Elder," Danziger explained. "Is he still under ground?"

"He is indeed, John," came the warm voice of the Elder. The man appeared before them, his eyes warm and full of wisdom. The three men shook hands, then embraced. Alonzo was taken aback a bit by the genuineness of John's open smile. He hadn't seen him this unguarded in a very long time.

"What can I do for you gentlemen?" the Elder asked.

John began to explain the vision he'd had over VR. As Alonzo listened, he could finally understand why John had to speak with Ellie again. "Can you show me how to contact her like you did your granddaughter?" John asked plaintively. "Would the Terrians mind?"

"Most of our friends are no longer in their winter sleep, John," the Elder began. "Only a couple are still hibernating, but I don't believe they'll mind one last dreaming before they awaken. Come."

The Elder led the way to the cavern ringed with Terrian beds. As Alonzo looked over the empty beds, he remembered how it felt when Mary had pushed him into one. He wondered anew and not for the first time where she was and how she was doing.

The Elder paused next to a sleeping Terrian and reached his hand up toward the Terrian's chest. "Put your hand on my shoulder and I'll lead you in," the Elder began.

"Mind if I tag along?" Alonzo asked, reaching his hand up to John's shoulder.

"Not at all," the Elder answered, placing his fingertips on the Terrian's still figure.

With a swirl of white, the three were launched onto the Dreamplane. Alonzo looked at John to see how well he was handling it. To his surprise, John's nervousness evaporated almost immediately in the face of the importance of his quest.

"I need to find Ellie," John began.

"Just hold her in your thoughts and she'll come to you," the Elder answered.

Alonzo stood waiting with them as John closed his eyes. Long minutes passed by with no change in the Dreamscape.

"Something's not right here," John said at last. "I get nothing. It's like she's not there."

"Try someone else," the Elder suggested softly. "Try someone who knew her and you very well back on the Stations. Someone who might also still be around."

As John closed his eyes, the Elder reached out to touch Alonzo's arm and shook his head solemnly.

"Les and Alex are gone," John murmured to himself. "That leaves Roby or Ellie's brother." He frowned a moment, then decided, "Roby. Ellie's brother never liked me."

Within moments, the Dreamscape swirled to admit a middle aged man. Alonzo had only met Gene Roby once or twice in passing over the years, but recognized him anyway. He'd always been good with faces and sleepjumping gave one a talent for seeing the younger acquaintance in an older face.

"My God," Roby exclaimed. "John Danziger, you crazy s.o.b. I haven't thought of you in twenty years! I have got to be dreaming!"

The mists of the Dreamscape swirled around them as Danziger and Roby embraced. "It's been a long time, I guess," Danziger said, feeling a good bit disturbed by the age of his old friend. Twenty-two years of cold sleep had a tendency to mess with one's perspective on things like that.

"You're telling me," Roby answered. "So are we going to hit all the bars and hit on all the women, huh? Just like old times?"

"Not just yet," John said. "Tell me about Ellie. How is she? Where is she?"

"God, John," Roby said with a deep sigh. "I haven't thought of Ellie in years either. That was such a godforsaken mess."

"What was?" John asked intently.

"The way the Station brass did you guys. No body knew for certain you were all dead. The news reports said the ship exploded, but rumor always had it that you'd escaped, barely," Roby reminisced.

"What are you talking about, Gene?" John began to get intense in his questioning. The Elder placed one hand on his arm.

"Calm yourself, John. You'll break the link," he instructed. "Go easy."

Alonzo could see the effort it took for Danziger to calm himself down.

"Fill me in, Gene," he managed to continue more gently. "Tell me what happened."

Roby began to spill a tale of bureaucratic nightmare and red tape that chilled Alonzo to the bone. When the crew and colonists of Roanoke and Jamestown had been declared dead, all their personal assets had been frozen. Within a day or so, all but Devon Adair's accounts had been freed of encumbrance.

However, since it had been Adair's open defiance of port authority that had led to the disaster, her personal finances had been seized and all transactions into or out of her accounts were locked down. After five years worth of legal battles, the surviving family members of the crew had managed to force payment of the crew salaries, but it had been too little, too late for Eleanor Moore.

Without his paycheck from Devon Adair, the cold sleep obligation plus his inherited debt payments had cleaned out his account in three years.

"John, we scraped together every penny we could from every corner we could scrape it," Roby said sadly. "We bought another six months onto her cold sleep contract out of respect for you and your girl, but it still ran out over a year before they finally settled all of it."

"What happened to Ellie, Gene?" John forced himself to be calm.

"She died when they pulled her out of cold sleep," Roby said sadly. "That's been nearly twenty years ago now. It still makes me mad to think of it. Shankin' bureaucrats. Sons of bitches." Roby began to fade away.

"Gene!" John called to him. "Wait, Gene!"

"Let him go, John," the Elder said. "You can't hold someone in a nightmare like that. It's just not right."

"But I saw her," John said wistfully. "How could I see her if she was dead?"

"Sometimes, John, we're just dreaming," the Elder answered as he pulled them away from the Dreamplane and back into the cavern.

Alonzo made a few attempts at conversation during the return trip, but to no avail. Danziger wasn't responding.

When they rolled back into camp the next day, they were met by Yale and Julia only. Alonzo had called in secretly over gear to ask for a little space.

"Are you guys okay?" Julia asked. But John wasn't talking.

"Yeah, we're fine," Alonzo answered for them both.

Back in his tent, John set down his knapsack and looked around. This was it, he thought to himself. This was all he had. No matter what managed to remain in his account on the Station, all he had was right there in a miserable tent on a miserable planet twenty-two light years from where Ellie had drawn her last breath eighteen years ago. She'd been dead for eighteen years and he never even knew it.

Outside, he could hear True and Uly playing some kind of game, but he couldn't face True. Not just yet.

He wandered out of the tent and aimlessly through the camp. Finally he ended up where he knew he was heading all along. He stood in front of Devon's sleep capsule, shaking with fury.

"See where you've gotten us, Adair! Look at yourself! Look at me! Look at Ellie! That's where your bullheadedness has gotten us," he yelled. He yelled at her more viciously than he'd ever thought of yelling at her before. "We are hell and gone away from home with nothing, Adair. Nothing."

He couldn't look at her anymore. He wouldn't dream about her begging him not to leave her behind. He refused to have any pity at all any more. Without a backward glance, Danziger left the Council ship, determined never to set foot in it again.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

The next morning saw Danziger up and awake as if nothing had ever happened, at least outwardly. He had breakfast with True and talked with her about her plans for the day. He met with Baines and Walman about the rail's recent overhaul, then spoke with Alonzo about giving the ATV a once over before they headed out.

Then along with Cameron, he loaded the power generator into the back of the dunerail, stopping by the Martin tent to collect the sunstone again.

"Do you want to run through the repair on VR again?" Morgan asked.

"I never want to touch that shankin' thing again as long as I live," Danziger snarled. Then he apologized immediately. "Sorry, Martin. That program came in real handy for working out the bugs, but I've got it down now."

Bess passed him the bag with the sunstone in it, a knowing look in her eye. "Don't blow up our power generator, Danziger. We need it," she said.

"I'm not going to blow up the generator," he responded firmly.

"See that you don't," she countered just as firmly, giving him a long hard stare.

"What was that all about?" Morgan asked as Danziger guided the dunerail over the ridge and out of sight.

"You know what Alonzo let slip last night," Bess replied. "I just wanted to be sure John wasn't suicidal."

"You don't think he is, do you?" Morgan asked nervously.

"No, I don't think so," she answered thoughtfully, "but he's sure hurting pretty badly."

She took a long look down the dunerail's tracks, then turned to Morgan. "I'm going to do a little exploring for a bit, look for some more wildflowers to dry. What are you going to do?" she asked her husband.

He fingered his VR set. Bess's exploring missions usually left him with enough time to play a least a couple of good sets, he thought. "I'm just going to hang around here, I guess," he ventured.

"That's a good idea, Morgan honey. You have fun and rest up. We're supposed to leave in the morning," Bess replied, giving him a soft kiss. As she closed the tent flap behind her, she could hear the chirps of the VR set as Morgan loaded his favorite jazz program.

Knowing that Morgan was occupied for a while, Bess followed the dunerail's tracks out of the camp. She felt confident that Danziger had carried the generator out of reach purely as a precaution. She'd been around the man long enough to know that he did not take foolish chances with machinery. He was more than capable of making the repair in his sleep.

A nice stretch of the legs later, she came upon the dunerail, generator humming merrily in the seat. John was nowhere to be seen though. She looked around a rocky outcropping to see him, sitting under the shade of an overhanging bluff. His head was in his hands. Her heart went out to him.

Who was going to look after him? Not Julia, she had Alonzo to deal with. Not Magus, she had to put up with Walman. Morgan took plenty of time, but Bess reasoned she had more resources than anyone else for looking after John Danziger. She knew his type; she'd been raised by a man very much like him.

"John," she called out quietly as she approached. "I'm coming to sit with you for a while."

And she did. She sat next to him in silence. She didn't try to talk to him. She didn't ask him anything. She just sat with him. After a while, he stood up, then reached down one hand to pull her to her feet.

"Thanks," he said gruffly.

"No problem," she answered.

"Want a ride back?"

"Sure."

They rode in silence for a bit, then John began to talk. At first, he just talked about their travel plans for the coming day, then he talked about True.

"I never realized just how much she looks like her mother," he said with a sigh.

"Ellie must have been a beautiful woman then because True is a lovely little girl," Bess stated. She noticed John's start of surprise when Bess mentioned Ellie by name.

He stopped the dunerail. "I never gave up on her, Bess," he said. "I never did. Not when we didn't have anything to our names. Not when she wouldn't marry me. Not even when the doctors said there was nothing left to do but let her die. I never gave up on her."

Bess just sat and listened. "I took this job with the idea that maybe, just maybe there would be some kind of miracle when we got back. Somehow enough time would have passed that they could bring her back to me. They could give True her mother."

Bess knew the moment had come to ask the question. "John, what happened to Ellie?"

He leaned his head onto his hands resting on the steering wheel of the rail. "They killed her, Bess," he managed, his voice raw with emotion. "The Station brass killed her and it was my fault. I didn't protect her. I wasn't there with her. I was asleep." He looked up from the wheel, tears welling in his eyes. "I was asleep."

Bess didn't say anything. She just reached out to him and held him. It was the first time she'd ever seen a grown man cry, not even Morgan, who was a world class whiner. And John Danziger was the last man on earth she'd ever expected to cry on her shoulder. She felt honored.

After a few minutes, he'd pulled away from her, mumbling apologies.

"Listen to me, John Danziger," she said firmly, taking him by the arm. "You have nothing to apologize for. You are the strongest man I've known since my father. You've always only did your best to take care of True and of this group and of Ellie. She knew that, John. She still knows that. She's still looking out for you and True."

"I hope you're right," he answered.

"I know I am. I have faith in you. We all do," Bess continued in a tone that brooked no argument.

Camp was just over the next rise. "Oh, look!" Bess suddenly exclaimed. "Wildflowers! Let me out here, please. I have to pick a few to dry." And she hopped out of the rail as if the entire afternoon had never happened.

After dinner that evening, the group sat around the campfire, a little more at peace than before. Other than giving him a bright smile, Bess had not let on that he'd ever said a word to her about Ellie, much less that he'd cried on her shoulder like a little boy.

He wondered if Martin truly understood what a treasure he had. Then he caught them exchanging a loving glance and John realized that Morgan knew. He was still a whiny annoyance, but he knew Bess was the best thing that had ever, could ever happen to him. He sighed and glanced back toward the Council ship.

Despite the fact that he'd just sworn he'd never set foot in there again, he felt bad about how he'd railed at Devon, even if she couldn't hear him. On this planet though, you never knew.

The group was still gathered by the fire as he rose and made his way over to the ship. The lights came up as he entered the cold sleep chamber. Devon stood there, looking every bit the princess she always did. Not even the ravages of sickness could dim the elegance she always seemed to possess.

"I've come to apologize," he began, feeling a bit awkward. "I'm sorry I yelled at you and said we had nothing here. It's not true. We have a lot here. Uly has health. We all have freedom. We have each other."

He took a deep breath. "All you ever did was your best for your son and this group. We've all lost by coming here, but we've all gained as well. Who's to say if True and I hadn't come that it would have changed anything? Ellie might still be dead. I might have gotten killed on some spacewalk and left True with nothing but a load of debt she couldn't pay."

"This place gives us a chance, Adair," he continued. "It gives us a chance at a new life. The past is behind us." He reached out his hand to the cold sleep tube. "We're just going to have to work for the future."

Outside the ship, a Terrian with a triangular staff and scarlet beads around his right wrist listened and learned.


End file.
